Coaches Confidential: What’s most important to achieve in preseason football practices?

We granted anonymity to high school football coaches in Greater Canton to answer assorted questions for us before the start of the 2023 season.

The questions covered a wide range of topics and we'll share their responses throughout the next five months. Last week, we asked them if the season starts too early now. Today’s question:

What’s the most important thing you’re looking to achieve in preseason practices?

• “We want to stay healthy and get everything installed. To achieve perfection, never abandon the basics and don't get out-worked.”

• "Trust. Each year you're talking about bringing a group of guys together. You lose so many kids each year. You've got to be able to build trust and continuity, and not just with players, but with your staff, too."

• "Don't miss on where you're playing guys. Find out early where they can play."

• "Just setting the culture and making sure the expectations are high. We had a 10-minute talk on, ‘This is how we're going to leave the locker room every day. This is where your shoes go. This is where the trash goes.’ And our kids typically will be spot on with that a week from now and for the rest of the year. Obviously, everyone wants to win as many games as they possibly can, but if you have a good culture, you can obviously have the good times together and you can also handle the bad times and the tough times better. And that's part of what this game teaches you, too."

• "Camaraderie. Continuity. Timing. And also putting together an effective practice schedule and an effective way of identifying what your deficiencies are and being able to prescribe remedies for them."

• "Conditioning, team leadership and just knowledge of schemes."

• "Stay healthy. You can lose games by losing a guy. ... The other thing would be to continually grow each day. That's one thing I'm proud of. Our teams seem to get better each week. That's a sign that your staff is doing their job."

• “Work ethic and team togetherness along with fundamentals.”

• "I think trying to build some depth. Once you get into the season, you tend to focus on the guys that are going to play on Friday nights. If you can build depth through the summer and training camp and have some of those sophomores come along through the season to help you, it's real important."

2023 Greater Canton high school football preview stories

Miss any of our 2023 high school football preseason coverage? Here's a look at some of top stories, so far, leading up to the season's kickoff Aug. 17-19:

• How do we rank the top teams entering this season? Here's our top five teams in Divisions I-11 and III-VII.

• We're breaking down the top 10 players to watch by position group. Here's who we have as the area's top wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks.

• A former Stark County star is back home to start his coaching career, while still pursuing his dreams of playing pro football.

• Here's a look at schedules for area teams.

• Like every season, colleges are looking to Stark County to find players for the next level. In recent weeks, Oklahoma recruited a QB, assorted Power Five schools are zeroing in on a McKinley star, one of the county's most prolific passers made his college choice, a Lake standout is headed to a service academy, and a Massillon All-Ohioan chose a MAC school.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: What Stark high school football coaches try to achieve in preseason?